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Do Cold Drinks Slow the Metabolism?

Q. It’s really nice to have an icy drink in hot days. However, I heard someone say that cold drinks will slow down the metabolism. So even if they are low in calories, they can slow weight loss. Is it true?

A. Ah, that “someone.” Like so many of the things about nutrition that “someone” has said, this one is completely false (and not even logical). As I explained in my show on negative calorie foods, drinking cold drinks actually helps you burn a few extra calories because your body has to spend energy to heat them up to body temperature.

But, as I said in this recent interview with Today’s Diet and Nutrition Magazine, something can be true without being significant. In the case of drinking ice water, the calorie-burning effect is too small to make drinking ice water a viable weight loss strategy — but at least you don’t have to worry about cold drinks slowing down weight loss.